Thirteen years ago, I left the USN with an Honorable Discharge after serving 10 years and participating in Desert Shield/Desert Storm. After I was out I wasn’t so sure what to do with myself but it wasn’t long before I found myself attending the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Police Academy five hours a night, six nights a week for 10 months. That’s right folks, 10 long months. After graduation those of us who finished were the first group to ever be required to pass a State Certification Exam. I had no trouble passing the first time out with a 93%.
Although I graduated from the Academy, I ended up moving to New York before I started a job as a Police Officer. That in it self is a long story but the short of it was, I got divorced and had two kids to raise so back home to Hamburg we came. I immediately looked for a police job here but to my misfortune the Civil Service exam for the Sheriff’s Department and every local police department had just recently been taken. So I had no choice but to wait for the next test. Unfortunately, I pretty much forgot about the test for the next 12 years.
This past October I was surfing the employment web pages looking for a job that would accomodate my back disability when I came across, what else, the Sheriff’s Exam! Well their was no way I could ever get hired into that position after having such a major back surgery but I figured “what the hell, why not take the exam anyway”, just to see how I do. So I submitted my application and Certifications and was accepted into the exam.
For the last 5 months or so, a few hundred Western New Yorkers have been holding their breath and waiting to see where they placed for the exam. I too was waiting, but more so for pride than hope for a job. Well, last week I received a notice in the mail saying that I was ineligible to be placed on the exam result list because I was supposedly 8 months to old! That’s right folks, I can’t become a Police Officer because I’m 42 years old!
I couldn’t believe this so I went downtown to check it out. I had to find out what in the world they were taking about, I mean, this couldn’t be true. After all Florida and many of the other States don’t have any age restrictions to be a Police Officer. As long as you can pass the physical requirements and Academy then why shouldn’t you be allowed to work in that field? Isn’t this called age discrimination? Don’t we have laws protecting against this?
Well I’m not really disappointed about not making the list, after all their is absolutely no way that I could ever get hired right? But I figured I should follow through with this investigation, it would at the very least provide an entertaining story. So on to the phone I went, calling the ACLU, Office of Human rights, and my local State representatives. Each got back to me as the day progressed and each had their own take on the issue.
The ACLU told me that they fought this issue twice in court as far as they could take it, but in the end they lost both times. I was informed that the ACLU considers this NYS Law that discriminates hiring based on age as the most egregious affront to the Constitution that they have fought, but in the end they lost and have to live with it.
The NYS Office of Human Rights simply said that this issue was negotiated and they were happy with the out come. They had very little interest in looking into the discrimination aspect of this issue. All my conversation with them did is lead me to believe this is a Patronage job and the people their are dumber than the laws we have in New York!
Finally I spoke to one of our state Legislators in Albany. I was told that this issue has been a hot bed of discussion over the years but the Democrats will not concede any concessions on it. This representative told me that even if they can’t remove the age limit for the hiring, the most outrageous part is that the police aren’t held to the same standard once they get in the department. He agreed that it makes no sense that a person can’t get hired if they are older than 41 years( with at least 6 years military) but we have fat lazy 60 year olds clogging the arteries of the force everywhere. this representative told me that their has been a push for a 55 year old age limit but it gets killed by the Dems who are beholden to the PBA every time out of the box.
So the bottom line is that if you are mature enough and qualified to be an effective Police Officer but are 42 or older you need to leave NY to pursue that line of work. Never mind the fact that the same police forces are filled with the big fat lazy cops that couldn’t pass an academy obstacle course to save their own lives. As I said, it’s the NYS Double standard. OH YEA, I forgot to tell you! if I had made the list I would have scored a 95% before using the 5% points for military Veteran status and would have been placed #1 on Hamburg’s Police eligible List! Who would have thought! LOL!!!
